


Market Jitters

by MachineQueen



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fluff, White Rose - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 10:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15313431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MachineQueen/pseuds/MachineQueen
Summary: Ruby and Weiss head out to Mistral's markets to gather supplies. Weiss contemplates where she's been and where she wants to be.Set during Volume 5 before the confrontation at Haven.





	Market Jitters

“A white rose for the lady?”

Weiss took the flower without thinking about it, only belatedly realising she was supposed to pay for it. Having been designated the responsible one (by Ruby, not by Qrow who muttered something along the lines of ‘Don’t spend it all at once’) she had been trusted with the remains of Qrow’s hard earned Lien. She dug into the purse and produced a coin, causing the vendor to flash a toothy smile and give an exaggerated bow.

Mistral’s markets were nothing like the regimented fetes in Atlas or the street traders in Vale. All the stalls were jumbled together so you couldn’t tell what was supposed to be where and it was easy to get disorientated on the twisted paths that snaked through the middle. Ruby had disappeared a while ago. Weiss couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment they’d got separated by the crowd. Admittedly, she’d been distracted by a stand of shiny gilt trinkets...but it wasn’t her fault that Ruby had the attention span of a small fly. Weiss had been looking for a telltale flash of red but so far it had not been forthcoming.

“If I were Ruby, where would I be?” she wondered aloud.

It had been so long since they’d been together that it still hardly felt real. In the stories she told Klein, Ruby had almost become a myth. Weiss started to believe she’d made half of it up - Ruby’s scythe, her sweet tooth, her stupid (adorable) dog and her love of anything that fired bullets. Being with her again brought back nostalgic feelings of when Weiss’s biggest problem had been having to sit through a boring class. 

Lost in thought, Weiss found herself in a quiet corner where the patrons murmured and goods were exchanged with more discretion than in the ‘Strawberries! 1000 Lien for strawberries!’ section of the market. 

“...Schnee?” The words were soft in her ear.

“Yes?” Weiss snapped out a response without thinking. She had to stop doing that. Ever since she’d left Atlas, she’d been sloppy, careless. She’d let herself go in a big way. Schnees weren’t supposed to be vulnerable. In her mind’s eye she saw Winter, back straight, gaze cool. Disciplined (except when it came to Qrow, anyway). Proud. That was what a Schnee was supposed to be. 

“Who wants to know?” asked Weiss, trying not to let panic creep into her tone. Had the bandits found her again…? The young man didn’t smell like the wilderness of Anima. He was well-groomed in the way of the wealthy, straight hair, straight teeth. Weiss let herself relax a little. 

“I thought you looked like Winter’s little sister,” said the man. “Don’t remember me, huh? Well, you were just a kid.”

Weiss narrowed her eyes. “We’ve met then…?”

“Not as such. I went through basic training with Winter and you came to visit her once with your father.”

XxX

Weiss had been to visit Winter at the Atlas Academy. It was a visit she’d begged and pleaded for and around the time the arguments about her sister’s future had come to a stormy peak. Her father had raged and raged and raged. Winter remained ice cool until -

“You’re a smart girl. Why waste your intellect in meaningless scrapping when-”

“Defending my country is ‘meaningless scrapping’ is it? I think you’ll find you’re the one that lives a meaningless existence, obsessed by money money money. You care more about that than anything and I-” 

The shouting went on. Weiss wondered when she could go home. In the end, the argument became so fierce that General Ironwood intervened, apparently summoned by concerned eavesdroppers. 

“The noise is disturbing the other students. If you must continue rowing, could you please do it off campus.”

“Father was just leaving,” said Winter stiffly. “He can come and collect Weiss tomorrow.”

The air crackled with tension. “I’ll escort you out then, Jacques,” said Ironwood.

After he was gone, Winter took her for cream tea in the student canteen. They talked about Weiss’s singing lessons and her new combat tutor and didn’t mention their parents once. 

XxX

Back in the present, Weiss studied the stranger more carefully. “You don’t look like a soldier…”

“I’m not. I quit. Atlas wasn’t for me,” said the man. “I didn’t fit in. That’s why I came here.” He spoke in an easy tone but Weiss couldn’t stop herself from being suspicious. “If you’re missing Atlas though, I know a place I think you’ll like.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. How dumb do you think I am?” asked Weiss. 

“Wow. Chill out. Look, here’s my card. I run an Atlesian tearoom. I’m sure it would make everyone’s day to meet a Schnee. You should drop by if you get a chance.”

He handed Weiss a thin slip of silver card. As if they’d met at a grand soirée in her manor and not a shady corner of a foreign market. Weiss took it without a second thought, for a minute transported back in time to when she pasted on her best smile and tried not to be an embarrassment. 

KEVIN STERLING - STERLING TEA ROOMS

XxX

When Weiss found Ruby, she was wide eyed and clutching a paper bag that said ‘Welcome to Mistral.’ Relief flooded through her but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything, didn’t quite know what to say apart from-

“And what is that?”

“Weiss! You’re alive!” said Ruby.

Ruby gave her an enthusiastic hug, crushing the bag between them. Weiss could smell something unpleasant coming from it which momentarily dulled the moment. But then Weiss thought about how long it had been since she’d had a proper hug. Her parents didn’t do that kind of thing. And even the thought of trying to hug Whitley made her shudder. Winter hugged but she was very proper about it, making sure her elbows were folded in neatly. Not like Ruby, who didn’t give a damn that she was wrinkling Weiss’s clothing and that her hair was tickling Weiss’s nose. Ruby let go just a little bit too soon for Weiss’s liking (though she couldn’t say anything of course). Then the mysterious bag was thrust towards Weiss. 

“Want to try some insanity cheese? Apparently it’s a local speciality.”

Weiss tentatively took the bag and peeked inside. She could see several unappetizing yellow-grey lumps. 

“So it makes you insane? Or is it just insane to eat it?”

“The second one,” said Ruby. “But hey, a freebie is a freebie. How about you? Find anything interesting?”

“A flower and-” Weiss hesitated. “I met someone. From Atlas.”

She handed Ruby the tea room card. Ruby turned it over

“Looks fancy. Should we go check it out?”

“...I don’t know.” 

Not long ago, Weiss would have said yes without hesitation. She was proud of coming from Atlas and she was proud of her family name. That was why she never tried to disguise who she was. She was Weiss Schnee dammit and she was proud. But if she were honest, her last stay in Atlas had left her completely cold. The once familiar, serene halls of her manor had felt chilly and devoid of life. She’d forgotten how tiresome her mother and father could be and how poisonous Whitley was. Then there were the functions, the parties, the never-ending parade of social climbers who only saw her as a step up the ladder. 

Ruby had never treated her like that. The fact Ruby didn’t act like she was anything special had once bothered her. But now it was a welcome change. 

“We might as well as we’re here,” said Ruby. “Maybe they’ll have some Atlesian Knights serving tea!”

XxX

From the outside, the tearoom seemed non-suspicious. Which in Weiss’s book, made it more suspicious than ever.

“I’m not sure-”

“Ice cream!” said Ruby. She was gazing, enraptured, at the colourful window display. Strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, mint, honeycomb and a rainbow of other flavours were all set out in uniform rows. It was the kind of place Winter looked at longingly and walked past. But Ruby was already pushing the door open, eager for sweet treats.Weiss grabbed her arm. 

“What will your uncle say if we spend all our money on ice cream?”

“He’ll say ‘Didn’t you save some for me?’” said Ruby with a certainty that Weiss found charming but not particularly convincing. She went inside, leaving Weiss no choice but to follow.

“A table for two, miss?” asked a waitress. When she clapped eyes on Weiss, her eyes widened.

“Well I never! Could you possibly be…?”

“Weiss Schnee. A pleasure to meet you.”

Weiss offered a handshake and they were given one of the best tables on the upper level, where they could look over the sprawling market in all its haphazard glory. 

Shortly after that, Weiss was instantly reminded of all the reasons she hated Atlas. Her name on everyone’s lips, whispers, stares, ‘Isn’t that the heiress?’ ‘Well, she’s not the heiress anymore.’ Her cheeks heated and she took a breath, trying to calm herself. Most of the tea room’s clientele looked Atlesian. They were dressed that way, though a few concessions had been made to the warmer climate in Mistral. 

Ruby seemed not to have noticed the extra attention and was already trying to decide on the best combination of ice cream flavours. 

“They have mango! And kiwi! And coconut! I don’t think I can choose...What are you having?”

Weiss insisted they both order one of Atlas’s specialties, peach ice cream with apple tea. 

“It’s pretty weird, tea and ice cream,” said Ruby. “Is it supposed to cool you down or warm you up?”

“The tea is supposed to warm you up after the ice cream.”

“But why not just have the tea? Atlas is covered in snow, right?”

Weiss shrugged. “It’s no stranger than the insanity cheese.”

There was a brief silence. “Weiss, are you OK?” asked Ruby. 

No. She wasn’t OK. She was angry, lonely, upset, shocked, bewildered and hadn’t had time to process any of it. And now, as if in a dream, she was walking around a foreign market buying supplies for a confrontation she barely understood. 

“You just seem a little twitchy,” said Ruby.

“I-I am not twitchy!” said Weiss. It was a reflex more than anything else but the way her voice had faltered left neither of them fooled. 

“Things in Atlas were really that bad, huh?”

“They were OK,” said Weiss, again convincing no one.

“But you said you ran away,” said Ruby. “Where were you running to?”

_You. I had to find you._

But in reality Weiss just shrugged, which was unladylike but she doubted anyone in Mistral would care. “Away. Maybe to Winter.”

“I wondered,” said Ruby. “About coming to get you. But I figured you were safe and I didn’t want to drag you into anything you didn’t want to be part of.”

That would have been something. If Ruby had burst into the Schnee manor in a shower of rose petals and said ‘You can’t treat Weiss like this! She’s coming with me because she doesn’t belong here anymore.”

It was Ruby, so she would have stuttered or tripped or delivered her speech to someone who wasn’t her father. Even so, Weiss would have pretended to think about it for a second and then promptly allow herself to be Crescent Rose-d out of there. 

“I was already part of things,” said Weiss. “I helped you up the tower. I heard you scream. And then Qrow was there and he made me run back and promised he would find you. I thought ‘Pyrrha and Ruby and dead.’ And Jaune was crying and he wouldn’t stop and the whole thing was just wrong.

“Then my father came to get me. And before I left Qrow said you were alive but unconscious. Yang wouldn’t see me and Blake was gone. It all happened so fast.”

“Yeah,” said Ruby. “For me too.”

Weiss was about to say something extremely foolhardy when the ice cream arrived, delivered by the man she’d met earlier.

“Good of you to come, Miss Schnee.”

“This is quite the venue,” said Weiss, slipping back into socialite mode. “It seems like every Atlesian in Mistral is here.”

“A lot of them got stuck here after General Ironwood closed the borders,” said Mr Sterling. “He’s a pretty unpopular figure these days.”

Weiss’s thoughts turned to Winter. Had she gone back to Atlas, then? Was she stuck in the chaos Weiss was sure she’d left in her wake? The timing was all screwed up. If she’d just stayed in Atlas a little bit longer, she could have gone with Winter.

But then she wouldn’t be sitting in a tea room with Ruby Rose. 

“May I take a photograph?” asked Mr Sterling. “Something to put on the wall.”

“I’m not allowed to endorse anything apart from-” Weiss stopped. She wasn’t the Schnee Dust Company heiress anymore. To hell with it. “Sure. Snap away.”

“Fabulous! In that case, the tea is on the house.”

XxX

“It’s a great picture,” said Ruby. “We look so fancy, like people who say ‘Top of the morning to you!’”

“No one in Atlas says that,” said Weiss. “And anyway, you’re sticking your tongue out. So childish.”

Both of them were carrying a bag of groceries, having finally finished what they’d originally set out to do. The rooms they were staying in were a fair walk and Weiss wondered how they would explain their overly long absence. Should she start coming up with excuses…? No, that was what Atlas Weiss would have done. New improved Weiss was an adult and didn’t need to explain anything to anyone.

“If it’s such a bad photo, hand it over!” said Ruby.

“No!” said Weiss. “I don’t want you showing it to everyone. It’s embarrassing.”

It was embarrassing because she looked ecstatically happy to have Ruby Rose’s arm around her. In fact, she was sure that anyone else who looked at the image would instantly know how she felt about Ruby. Even thinking about those feelings put her on edge. It felt like she was on the edge of a steep cliff, about to fall off at any second. Maybe one day she’d take a leap of faith and say something to Ruby but at the moment she wasn’t ready. 

“If you say so,” said Ruby, but she didn’t push and prod like she would have done before. Maybe she hadn’t been the only one to change over the last few months. And maybe new improved Ruby wouldn’t laugh in her face if she explained how she felt.

“Who should we trick into trying the insanity cheese?” asked Ruby.

...Or maybe she hadn’t changed as much as Weiss thought. And maybe she was just fine with that.

**Author's Note:**

> Insanity cheese is a real thing you can buy at Bury Market in the UK. Slap it in Google if you want to know more.
> 
> You can also get tea floats! I chose apple and peach as Atlas's speciality because I believe those fruits can grow in slightly colder weather. I mean...not snow but maybe a big fancy Atlas greenhouse. They must get food from somewhere if General Ironwood has closed the country :-)
> 
> I wanted to explore Weiss's complex feelings towards Atlas and how her identity as a Schnee has been completely thrown into jeopardy. But then it got shippy and I went 'Oh, this fic might be publishable.' And so here we are.


End file.
